Wednesday, December 30, 2015

albums of the year, 2015 edition

Turns out there were some pretty sweet albums released this year. Here are some of my favorites, along with either a Youtube stream, or my favorite jam from each.

Strung Out - Transmission.Alpha.Delta
I
hear highlights from all their albums in this one. Not a crappy song
present, and their streak of closing the album with an awesome track
remains intact. I can't envision a scenario where somebody doesn't find this album enjoyable.

Self Defense Family - Heaven is Earth
More meandering than previous output, but as long as Patrick Kindlon is ranting over something resembling music, I'm down.

Turnstile - Nonstop Feeling
Nonstop Feeling? More like Nonstop PUMP. I detect notes of 90's hardcore, and hip hop, but with modern production. I have no qualms with playing this album twice in a row.

Twitching Tongues - Disharmony
This
band has a knack for kicking off the album with 10/10 songs, and then
causing you to slowly lose interest throughout the duration. Still the
highlights are fantastic. Good luck not going apeshit at the 1:05 and 3:30 marks of this song.

Kronos - Arise New Era
Brutal,
technical death metal. Between these guys, Benighted, Gorod, and others,
France is for some reason a hotbed of death metal. Not sure, but does the singer ever actually breathe or does he just brutalize?

Gorod - A Recycled Maze of Creeds
If
it weren't for the vocals, I'm not sure you'd call this death metal.
It's really jazzy and awesome. If I were to introduce a non-metalhead
musician to death metal, this would be the album.

Melt Banana - Return of 13 Hedgehogs
Oddball Japanese punk grind with annoying female vocals - somehow this works, and is awesome. Bonus points for these folks playing the inaugural local hipster music festival, and people having their minds blown that music doesn't have to suck and be slow and droney bullshit.

Abominable Putridity - The Anomalies of Artificial Origin.
Crushingly
heavy Russian and oppressive Russian brutal slam death metal from Russia.
Originally released in 2012, this was reissued in 2015. The bass drops are timed perfectly. Russia.

Adventures - Supersonic Home
Rock
with off key vocals that are so catchy, it's almost impossible to not
enjoy. Most of this band is in an overrated hardcore band called Code
Orange.

Beach Slang - The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us
Imagine
if Jawbreaker reunited and wrote Dear You in 2015, but with a little
more rock, and strangely, a slightly different 90's vibe at times. Imagine it sounding comfortingly familiar.

Snoozed
on last year: Columns - Please Explode. Dudes from Glass Casket go
faster and grindier, cutting down song length, increasing the awesome.
Bonus points for a song called "Punching Nancy Grace".

Other stuff I got into from year end lists:
VI - raging, unhinged black metal. I don't even generally like black metal.
Tau Cross - everybody loved this, I am not convinced yet.
Lychgate - atmospheric, eerie black metal. Mgla - this is how I envision black metal to sound. Would be my album of the year if I had discovered it earlier.
Beaten to Death - kinda weird grind that is wildly catchy.
Chelsea Wolfe - indie singer-songwriter bullshit combined with industrial metal flourishes.
The Armed - sounds like a punkier Converge. Awesome album, free on their bandcamp.

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tall man on the loose in tampa area

True story, there is a tall man terrorizing the Tampa area. This weirdo usually hangs out around parks, trying to find pick-up games of basketball - during which, he will grab the ball and maneuver around so that you come into contact with his stinky, naughty bits.

Truly an unpleasant experience.

His signature move is the "bait and switch junk grab". As you're grabbing for the ball, his junk magically appears. In the way of your hand.

Another one of his famous moves is to let the ball go loose, then as you scramble for it, his sweaty ass gets in the way. Of your face.